UPDATE: DC Comics has confirmed they will only be publishing a limited selection of titles each week during the pandemic.
DC Comics will continue publishing their books digitally, in spite of the shutdown of Diamond distribution due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Every aspect of life has been affected by Coronavirus, even including the comic book industry. The Direct Market has long seemed in a fragile place, and a pandemic is hardly helping.
Last week, Diamond Comic Distributor announced they were suspending shipments indefinitely. Diamond is the world's largest comic book distributor, responsible for shipping physical copies from companies such as Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, Dynamite, and BOOM! Studios. Retailers were left waiting to see how the big two publishers - Marvel and DC - responded to the news.
According to Newsarama, DC plan to continue publishing digital copies over this period. DC run a private Facebook page for Direct Market retailers, and Adam Phillips - the Director of Marketing Services - explained the decision there. "Here's where we are on digital," he posted. "All our data shows the digital consumer and the physical consumer are two different audiences. For now, we're going to continue to release digital comics, but will revisit this if the pipeline for physical distribution continues to be challenged and disrupted."
UPDATE: DC has confirmed to Screen Rant that only a limited selection of titles will be available for digital purchase.
Phillips' statement is an important one, with profound implications for the comic book market. According to Phillips, DC believe physical and digital sales reach completely different audiences, and don't tend to have a direct effect on one another. If true, the long-standing fear the rise of digital could mean the end of the Direct Market is ill-founded, because digital copies are being sold to people who would never have gone to a comic book shop in the first place. Even assuming this is correct, though, DC is taking a big risk that consumer behaviors won't be changed over the course of a potentially-protracted pandemic. There's no way to know how long the various shutdowns will last, but it will likely be several months before physical copies can be reliably distributed again. It's entirely possible loyal customers will switch to digital simply because they're shut in their homes, and want to keep up-to-date before they're spoiled on social media.
Coronavirus looks set to have a profound and lasting impact on the entire comic book industry. In another statement (published by ComicsBeat), DC suggested they were looking to move to a "multi-distributor model" because they anticipate "regional volatility." In other words, DC is exploring the possibility of reducing Diamond's role in distribution, presumably developing local channels instead. This would give DC a greater degree of flexibility, should some states be shut down for longer than others. Diamond's position of power would naturally be reduced as a result.
Marvel Comics is yet to make a statement, but it's reasonable to assume they will follow DC's lead.
Source: Newsarama